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Revista Politécnica

On-line version ISSN 2477-8990Print version ISSN 1390-0129

Abstract

RIVERA, Claudio-Enrique; FIGUEROA, Víctor-Manuel; RAMIREZ, Maribel-del-Carmen  and  GOYES, Víctor-Julio. Structure and floristic composition of the Lake Maracaibo Plain Forest, Zulia State, Venezuela. Rev Politéc. (Quito) [online]. 2022, vol.49, n.2, pp.7-16. ISSN 2477-8990.  https://doi.org/10.33333/rp.vol49n2.01.

To know the structure and the floristic composition of the woody species of the Maracaibo Botanical Garden (JBM) for the year 2019, an extremely important area for the conservation of native species in the region, the basal area, density, frequency and index importance value (IVI) was determined. Ten plots of 20 m x 50 m were established, subdivided into ten subplots of 10 m x 10 m, where all the woody individuals with diameter at breast height (DBH) from 2.5 cm were recorded. The flora of the forest registered: 50 species, 42 genera and 17 Dicotyledonous families, represented by 1,389 individuals per hectare. The Cactaceae, Capparaceae, Fabaceae and Malvaceae families showed the greater number of genera and species. Regarding the structure of the forest, two arboreal strata predominated: the first (<5 m) with 721 individuals (51.91 %) and the second (5-13 m) with 663 individuals (47.73 %), and five emerging individuals (> 13 m) with (0.36 %). Individuals with DBH <10 cm represented 59.90 % and with DBH ≥10 cm 40.10%, which indicate the presence of a relatively young forest. The basal area is low, two groups were observed: one between 4.71-5.09 m2 and another between 2.13 and 3.33 m2. Handroanthus billbergii registered the first place (100%) among the five species with the highest IVI, followed by Pithecelobium ambiguum, Bulnesia arborea and Cnidoscolus urens. It is concluded that the JBM forest is heterogeneous in terms of species richness and that the number of woody species is below the average for a very dry tropical forest (bms-T).

Keywords : Forest structure; floristic diversity; flora of Zulia; forest reserve; woody flora.

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